SOURCE: "Samuel Rogers: A Revaluation," The Wordsworth Circle, Vol. XVI, No. 3, Summer, 1985, pp. 146-49.

In the following excerpt, Avery discusses Rogers's poetic development, countering the popular opinion that Rogers's style remained static

A scholar who announces today that he is studying Samuel Rogers can expect from his colleagues little more than quizzical stares. However, in the period from 1800 to 1855, Samuel Rogers himself would have been recognized everywhere in the English-speaking world. He was as well known to the social and literary elite of London in his day as was T. S. Eliot in the London of the 1950's. . . .

However, all this emphasis on Rogers as a famous host should not obscure his reputation as a poet. The publication of The Pleasures of Memory in 1792 brought him fame and respect even before he moved to London, and the poem remained one of Wordsworth's favorites during the time he and...